This morning we drove from Puerta Sherry to Gibraltar to drop Vicky off at
the airport. We had a really pleasant drive through the countryside, and it
was great to see Spain from ashore for a change.
We encountered a huge number of wind farms, all being driven strongly by the
Easterly Levanter that kept us in harbour. We also saw a huge solar panel
array taking up acrea of a hillside.
On our return we set sail for Tarifa, the southernmost part of Spain at the
start of the Gibraltar strait.
We encountered big seas at Cabo de Trafalgar, and a wind over tide situation
with 28 knots of wind - it made for a bit of a wet trip. We had to motorsail
into the Easterly wind, but with the large seas we were not making much
speed through the water, but fortunately the tide was with us.
We are currently anchored to the West side of Tarifa, protected from the
swell. However the wind which had dropped to 12 knots on our approach has
again increased to nearly 30, so I have let out nearly 10:1 scope of anchor
chain.
The forecast is for the wind to ease soon. We certainly hope so before
heading into the strait tomorrow!
Peter.
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